FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT AGRICULTURAL MARKETING - PAGE 3

NEW DELHI: Keen to hasten the paradigm shift in agriculture sector from self sufficiency to market orientation, the Centre has given one year to all states to implement amended APMC Acts based on the Model Act on Agricultural Marketing. That proclamation came at the meeting here of state agriculture ministers to discuss the new Act posed by the Centre which incorporates, for the first time, contract farming, land lease and homestead-cum-garden concepts to revolutionalise land policy as part of agri marketing reform.

HYDERABAD: The process for a nationwide negotiable Warehouse Receipt (WR) System has been launched. It promises to revolutionise agricultural marketing in India and emerge the "demat" equivalent of commodity futures trading. Initially, five states and the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) will implement a pilot project in 10 model warehouses to try out the system in a month's time. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Committee on Warehousing and Bhandarana Yojana held in New Delhi today.

KOLKATA: The United States and India, on Tuesday (July 30), launched the second India-US-Africa triangular agricultural training program supported by the US government's global hunger and food security initiative Feed the Future. This partnership aims to improve agricultural productivity and support market insti-tutions in Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi , according to an email statement from the US Consulate General's office in Kolkata. United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

NEW DELHI: Onion continues to be an acutely sensitive commodity for the political community, but Nafed is planning to get into onion exports in a big way as part of its marketing image makeover. From a whopping Rs 1,400 crore in 2002-03, Nafed's key PSS (price support scheme) operations dropped to only Rs 100 crore in 2003-04, leaving it little option but to professionalise in a hurry and go in for a foundational change in its marketing mindset. Now, chairman Alok Ranjan has asked his alma mater IIM, Ahmedabad, to come up with a perspective plan that will reposition Nafed as an agricultural marketing company and "identify new areas of business strategy and investment".

NEW DELHI: In an effort to improve credit flow to the agriculture sector, the Centre is set to bring a legislative and regulatory framework that would make warehouse receipts a negotiable instrument, reports Tina Edwin in New Delhi. A draft Warehouse Development and Regulation Bill that proposes to make the warehouse receipts legally acceptable in the banking system and the commodities market, and for providing for its regulation, is already under circulation to the various ministries.

NEW DELHI: Given the expected rise in consumption, the country's agricultural output by 2030 could reach 29.28 lakh crore level and food exports could jump to over 7 lakh crore, a CII-McKinsey report on Friday said. "Consumption demand is increasing as India's per capita GDP is expected to increase by 320% in the next 20 years...agricultural output (at farm-gate prices) could grow from 12.69 lakh crore to 29.28 lakh crore by 2030. Processing could grow from 1.1 lakh crore to 5.65 lakh crore by 2030 while India's food exports could grow from 1.4 lakh crore to 7.72 lakh crore by 2030," the report, which was released today, said.

The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council expects improved farm growth, and industry and project clearances to revive growth this fiscal, but projects GDP growth at a rather muted 5.3% (barely up from 5% in 2012-13). The actual growth may well be higher, given the sterling monsoon that could see farm growth accelerate well above 5%, some 209 big-ticket investments, adding up to almost Rs 4 lakh crore, now in a fast-track implementation mode, and the long-delayed Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project finally getting underway.

NEW DELHI: Opposing acquisition of fertile agricultural land, leader of Opposition LK Advani on Monday asked the Prime Minister to call an all-party meeting on the policy framework of the special economic zones (SEZs). Addressing the annual general meeting of the industry chamber Ficci, Mr Advani said that SEZs are needed as enclaves of world-class manufacturing units focused on exports, but the UPA government has not exercised necessary transparency in formulating the policy.

Inefficiencies in the intermediation chain is often claimed to be the main culprit for the high price paid by the consumer for basic food, and the low share in the retail price accruing to the farmer. It is quite amazing, then, that the share of the producer-farmer in the retail price of a commodity like rice is much higher in India than in the US, when logic would seem to suggest that the US, being highly developed, would apportion a much higher share in the retail price to the farmer, by means of highly efficient intermediation.

NEW DELHI: Given the expected rise in consumption, the country's agricultural output by 2030 could reach Rs 29.28 lakh crore level and food exports could jump to over Rs 7 lakh crore, a CII-McKinsey report today said. "Consumption demand is increasing as India's per capita GDP is expected to increase by 320 per cent in the next 20 years...agricultural output (at farm-gate prices) could grow from Rs 12.69 lakh crore to Rs 29.28 lakh crore by 2030. Processing could grow from Rs 1.1 lakh crore to Rs 5.65 lakh crore by 2030 while India's food exports could grow from Rs 1.4 lakh crore to Rs 7.72 lakh crore by 2030," the report, which was released today, said.